The Oxford Handbook of the Economics of Religion [Hardcover]

This is a one-of-kind volume bringing together leading scholars in the economics of religion for the first time. The treatment of topics is interdisciplinary, comparative, as well as global in nature. Scholars apply the economics of religion approach to contemporary issues such as immigrants in the United States and ask historical questions such as why did Judaism as a religion promote investment in education?

The economics of religion applies economic concepts (for example, supply and demand) and models of the market to the study of religion. Advocates of the economics of religion approach look at ways in which the religion market influences individual choices as well as institutional development. For example, economists would argue that when a large denomination declines, the religion is not supplying the right kind of religious good that appeals to the faithful. Like firms, religions compete and supply goods. The economics of religion approach using rational choice theory, assumes that all human beings, regardless of their cultural context, their socio-economic situation, act rationally to further his/her ends.

The wide-ranging topics show the depth and breadth of the approach to the study of religion.


List of Contributors

Part I: Introduction
Chapter 1: The Economics of Religion as a Field of Inquiry
Rachel M. McCleary, Harvard University

Part II: Religion and Human Capital
Chapter 2: Religion, Human Capital Investments, and the Family in the United States
Evelyn L. Lehrer, University of Illinois at Chicago

Chapter 3: Religious Norms, Human Capital, and Money Lending in Jewish European
History
Maristella Botticini, Universit? Bocconi, and Zvi Eckstein, Tel Aviv University

Chapter 4: Islam and Human Capital Formation: Evidence from Pre-Modern Science
Eric Chaney, Harvard University

Chapter 5: The Effects of the Protestant Reformation on Human Capital
Sascha O. Becker University oflÓv